Doctor: I used café tablecloths to treat 7/7 bus bomb victims

Thursday 20 January 2011 12:43 BST

A doctor told today how he was forced to use café tablecloths to treat casualties of the 7/7 attacks.

Dr Sam Everington was one of the first on the scene of the Tavistock Square bus bombing. He and other medics raced to help after the blast took place just outside the HQ of the British Medical Association.

At the inquest into the atrocities, the GP - a deputy chairman of the BMA - told how they were forced to improvise as they only had access to first aid kits. He said the scene was "one of chaos".

He added: "I knew a lot of the doctors and took on a co-ordinating role. Although we were all doctors we were in offices and did not have medical equipment.

"We used tablecloths from the BMA canteen and cafés to bandage people up and stop the bleeding."

On the advice of a police officer he ordered the evacuation of casualties into a courtyard of the BMA: "In our minds there was a secondary device on that bus and we needed to get people away."

Speaking of one victim, Sam Ly, Dr Everington said: "I remember him being in a lot of pain. He didn't want to be moved, he was clearly in a lot of agony. On the whole you don't want to move people unnecessarily, but that was the advice."

He told the Royal Courts of Justice that ambulances took "longer than you would expect to arrive. We just had to get on with looking after casualties. We had a great sense there were a lot of bombs."

Fifty-two innocent people died in four suicide attacks in London on July 7, 2005. The inquest continues.